“We have adopted a five-point strategy. You need to adopt a
similar strategy to curb this kind of tendency in youngsters, who tend
to become terrorists, because merely getting hold of them and punishing
them legally does not solve the problem or get to the root of the problem,"
he said.

“He listed the five elements of Pakistan's counter-terrorist
strategy: curbing the propagation of extremism in mosques; restricting
the publication of extremist literature; banning extremist organisations;
stopping the teaching of militant Islam in schools; and bringing madrasas
(religious schools) into the mainstream.”
—
“ [...] Musharraf rejected any idea that the flow meant Pakistan
was at the heart of Britain's terrorist problem. "All the people
involved in the incident [the July 7 attacks] were born, educated, bred
in the UK." He suggested that the roots of the problem could lie
in the alienation of Pakistani youth in Britain.”

“As a result, we will have no choice but to add other sources
of energy - renewables, yes, but also more nuclear power and unconventional
fossil fuels such as oil sands. Using more energy inevitably means emitting
more CO2 at a time when climate change has become a critical global
issue.

“In the Scramble scenario, nations rush to secure energy resources
for themselves, fearing that energy security is a zero-sum game, with
clear winners and losers. The use of local coal and homegrown biofuels
increases fast. Taking the path of least resistance, policymakers pay
little attention to curbing energy consumption - until supplies run
short. Likewise, despite much rhetoric, greenhouse gas emissions are
not seriously addressed until major shocks trigger political reactions.
Since these responses are overdue, they are severe and lead to energy
price spikes and volatility.

“The Blueprints scenario is less painful, even if the start is
more disorderly. Numerous coalitions emerge to take on the challenges
of economic development, energy security, and environmental pollution
through cross-border cooperation. Much innovation occurs at the local
level, as major cities develop links with industry to reduce local emissions.
National governments introduce efficiency standards, taxes, and other
policy instruments to improve the environmental performance of buildings,
vehicles, and transport fuels.”

A beautiful description of the cowardice and mental incompetence
of Brown the Clown.

“All prime ministers have their own way of working and a comparison
of different styles can be revealing. One Number 10 insider recalls
that when John Major, the Tory prime minister, faced a tricky problem
he would ask his civil servants for all the relevant information and
read through the papers, often long into the night. The next morning
he would make his decision.

“Tony Blair, in contrast, would order his officials to do the
research and then give him a summary plus three or four options. The
next morning he would make a decision.

“And Gordon Brown? Like Sir John Major he prefers to study the
facts and figures for himself. "Like Sir John," says my man
with the long memory. "He often works into the wee small hours.
Then the next morning . . . he asks for more information." ”

Context: The UK Works and Pensions Minister has resigned
as files regarding his methods of raising political funds are passed to
the police at Scotland Yard. As soon as he resigned, Peter Hain’s
official minister’s web site was removed from the UK government
web site.

He is a non-person. He never existed. He has gone down
the memory hole.

This is ‘new’ labour with newspeak. Mention
of Hain is now doubleplusungood.

“Winston dialed 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called
for the appropriate issues of The Times, which slid out of the pneumatic
tube after only a few minutes' delay. The messages he had received referred
to articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought
necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify. For
example, it appeared from The Times of the seventeenth of March that
Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the
South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive
would shortly be launched in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian
Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North
Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big
Brother's speech, in such a way as to make him predict the thing that
had actually happened. Or again, The Times of the nineteenth of December
had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes
of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the
sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today's issue contained
a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts
were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston's job was to rectify the
original figures by making them agree with the later ones. As for the
third message, it referred to a very simple error which could be set
right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago as February, the Ministry
of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official
words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during
1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be
reduced from thirty grams to twenty at the end of the present week.
All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning
that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time
in April.

“As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped
his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of The Times and
pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was
as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message
and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory
hole to be devoured by the flames.” [Quoted from George
Orwell, 1984]

“We have known this [Peter Hain’s fundraising shenanigans]
all along. I’m confident he will be cleared” Peter
Hoon, Minister of Truth.

“As a political statement (and the book is not much more), this
is insufficient. Of course it is true in many cases, and it may be true
in all cases, that revolutionary activity is the result of personal
maladjustment. Those who struggle against society are, on the whole,
those who have reason to dislike it, and normal healthy people are no
more attracted by violence and illegality than they are by war. The
young Nazi in Arrival and Departure makes the penetrating remark that
one can see what is wrong with the left-wing movement by the ugliness
of its women. But after all, this does not invalidate the Socialist
case. Actions have results, irrespective of their motives. Marx's ultimate
motives may well have been envy and spite, but this does not prove that
his conclusions were false. In making the hero of Arrival and Departure
take his final decision from a mere instinct not to shirt action and
danger, Koestler is making him suffer a sudden loss of intelligence.
With such a history as he has behind him, he would be able to see that
certain things have to be done, whether our reasons for doing them are
‘good’ or ‘bad’. History has to move in a certain
direction, even if it has to be pushed that way by neurotics. In Arrival
and Departure Peter's idols are overthrown one after the other. The
Russian Revolution has degenerated, Britain, symbolized by the aged
consul with gouty fingers, is no better, the international class-conscious
proletariat is a myth. But the conclusion (since, after all, Koestler
and his hero ‘support’ the war) ought to be that getting
rid of Hitler is still a worth-while objective, a necessary bit of scavenging
in which motives are almost irrelevant.”

From ‘Arthur Koestler’, written by George
Orwell in 1944, not bad to read.

[‘Arthur Koestler’ is found in Critical Essays,
first published 1946.
hbk, Secker Warburg, 1946: amazon.comamazon.co.uk]

“[...] So heads were warned once again last week: it is now
illegal - a criminal offence - for a primary school head to conduct
an interview of any kind with the parents of applying pupils or to request
any information from them which might, in any way, indicate their class
background or provide clues about their own educational achievements.”

Having undermined the UK economy, having wasted British
North Sea oil and failed to expand nuclear energy and other alternatives,
now Gordon Brown the clown wants to sell Northern Crock to the Middle
East for oil!

“The frantic search for a private sector solution to the Northern
Rock crisis has been widened to include cash-rich governments in the
Middle East.

“Goldman Sachs, the investment bank brought in by the government
to find financing for a takeover of the stricken bank, has widened the
net as the deadline for potential bidders approaches. Alistair Darling,
the chancellor, has told Goldman that the government has no objections
in principle to so-called sovereign wealth funds being included in any
financing solution.

“There is no current indication that a deal has been clinched
but the Treasury believes it is sensible for the sovereign wealth funds
to be approached, given that they have accumulated vast cash reserves
after the fourfold increase in the price of oil over the last five years.
The main players in the region are the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
and the Qatari Investment Authority.”

If your income tax is 20% (or 40% in the UK under Gordon
Brown the clown) and the economy grows, and wages thereby rise, your tax
bill rises.

Continually, politicians talk of cutting taxes if they
reduce your 20% income tax to 19%. And then your wage goes up by 20%,
say from £100 a week to £120, so the tax you pay goes from
£20 to £22.80, that is your tax rises.

If inflation (another tax) is 10%, as it is in the
UK under Brown the clown, and if your income tax is 20%, while your wage
stays at £100 a week, over 1 year your real income has fallen by
10%, that is your tax rises.

If the government raises fuel tax, your taxes rise,
even when your income tax goes down by a smaller amount.

If corporation tax goes up by 20%, say from 25% to
30%, businesses have to recover that tax from customers. Therefore, rises
in corporation tax, or any other tax, ends up raising your taxes.

All tax rises are rises in your tax on your income.
Even taxes on imports and exports raise your prices. Taxes on holiday
makers visiting your country reduce the competitiveness of its businesses,
and thereby lowers their profitability.

If the politicians own the post office and the post
rate goes up, that is more tax. If stamp duty on house sales go up, that
is a tax.

If a government’s spending goes up, that will
result in more tax. Calling it ‘borrowing’ and taking it back
on rising inflation is a tax rise.

If government keep PFI (private finance initiatives)
off the books, but contract to pay rent on those contracts. That is a
tax rise.

If an economy grows and the government keeps taking
the same percentage, your taxes rise.

If the nominal (economy) GDP rises because of inflation,
and the tax percentage remains the same, your taxes are rising.

Socialism is the flat-earthism of social theories/arrangements.
If you behave as if the earth is flat, you get very bad outcomes.

Just as modern governments keep religion and politics
separated, sane people keep politics and economics separate. Socialism
is a religion. You cannot negotiate with religions. The more power they
accrete, the more dangerous they become. The error of Marxists is a strange
reflection of the error of Islam.

Sharia has economic pretensions; it also has pretensions
to political rule.

There is no (natural) left-wing liberalism. There is
not much right-wing liberalism.

I have much less concern about right-wing ‘fascism’
than the left-wing
version. I do not have to like it, but it does not tend to kill in
millions in the manner of left-wing dictatorships. There is also more
freedom in right-wing dictatorships, even when it includes the freedom
to starve.

In the meantime, right-wing ‘philosophies’
have had more time to generate some subtleties. They do have a ‘philosophy’
of individual space. Socialism has no such thing outside pretence or confusions.
There are no individuals in the anthill, other than perhaps the queen.

There is a common tolerance of socialism that is misplaced.
You may as well tolerate scorpions in your bed.